Commercial Integrator March 2021 - 18

THE SERVICE DESK
How the Cloud Helps Systems Integrators
Moving to the cloud can be a nerve-wracking experience, but the decision can pay dividends
down the line. by Mark Wiener
REMEMBER WHEN YOU BOUGHT your
first house or your first new car or your first
share of stock or even went on your first
date? Those were thrilling but scary moves
as you wondered if you were doing the
right thing. But for most of us, it proved to
be valuable for building our lives.
Think of moving to " the cloud " as the
same sort of decision. It's a big but smart
step into improving your company's present
and its future. The cloud can transform
your business by adding efficiency, savings,
and the ability to adapt to your needs.
Leveraging the cloud in lieu of an internal
infrastructure reduces numerous time pressured
technology demands creating more
work - life balance.
This isn't just for huge firms, either.
While large companies have embraced
the cloud transformation, a greater percentage
of small and midsized businesses
with 1-to-250 employees already are
using the cloud.
Making the switch
Moving to the cloud can be made easier by
partnering with knowledge cloud service
providers. It will require some learning on
your part but remember that many of your
competitors are already there.
Users like the cloud because it lowers
total costs and provides enhanced security,
greater flexibility, improved quality control,
better loss prevention and automatic software
updates, among other benefits.
› Easy management. No longer will your
high-value employees lose time tending
to technical issues. Now they will be
free to do what they do best, making
your company and customers stronger.
› Redundancy, disaster readiness and an
equipment agnostic approach are built
into the cloud.
› Microsoft Teams, Slack and Trello are
just several of the many reliable tools in
the cloud that enhance corporate and
customer collaboration.
› Cloud computing allows access to
18
Commercial Integrator MARCH 2021
How hamburgers might be offered in different aspects of as a Service models.
information anywhere with any compatible
device, a benefit for employees
working remotely.
› Strong security is built into the cloud,
with numerous controls and safety measures
to guard against theft, deletion
etc. Among the methods: firewalls,
penetration testing, virtual private
networks (VPN), and tokenization. Find
a cloud partner whose technology
tracks all access to files and folders and
promptly alerts you and IT teams about
suspicious activity.
The sooner your business moves to the
cloud, the quicker you will remove your reliance
on outdated technology and improve
your bottom line. You become more competitive
because the cloud provides scalability
and elasticity which is the ability to promptly
grow or shrink as business changes.
Finding a cloud partner
Numerous well-established companies
provide cloud services. They include Microsoft
Azure, AWS (Amazon Web Services),
IBM, Cisco Systems, Google Cloud, Oracle,
SalesForce and EMC Corp. In China, Alibaba
is the biggest.
There are three main forms of cloud computing
services; many providers offering
hybrid models as well.
› IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) you
have virtualized computing resources
over the Internet.
› PaaS (Platform as a Service) is often
used by people developing applications.
› SaaS (Software as a Service) you
access software through a subscription
rather than buying a license and installation
for each computer. This is the
most common type of service people
think about.
› One interesting hybrid model is DaaS
(Desktop as a Service), allowing you
to provide your users fully functional
windows virtual desktops providing full
secure access to their virtual workplace
from anywhere at anytime.
Shop around to determine which meets
your needs and goals.
Above all, stick to well-known, reputable
cloud providers and leverage service
partners with knowledgeable experienced
staff to help you make the move
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Commercial Integrator March 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Integrator March 2021